How to Balance Reuse and Customization in Marketing

Reuse. It should be a mantra for us all in these tough times. Good marketing content can and should be reused across multiple verticals. The 80/20 rule applies. For example, to get the proper mileage out of a good white paper, lead with some vertical-specific advice that feeds into core thinking that can be applied across all the verticals that you serve.

But reuse seems paradoxical when it’s applied to Account-Based Marketing (ABM). The premise of ABM is that you should treat each account like a market of one. Yet ITSMA research is showing that ABM is also a prime candidate for reuse. Here are some areas where marketers can be efficient while still giving customers and prospects the levels of individualized attention they seek. (We’ll be looking at reuse as part of our in-depth series of workshops on ABM coming up later this spring; get more information here.)

1. Central governance. Having some kind of central governance or coordinating authority for ABM is critical to building a strategy for using resources across multiple accounts. The central authority shares time-saving best practices, replicates effective processes and account structures across the organization, builds and maintains top executive support and resources, and resolves conflicts and roadblocks inside the organization.
2. One-to-few approach. Though some accounts will require a pure one-to-one approach in which marketing content and research are highly customized, our research found that many accounts would respond just as well to a one-to-few approach that requires less customization. Central governance is helpful for determining which accounts should get this type of treatment.
3. Vertical. In-depth research on the target company’s vertical is an important part of ABM. Though the analysis will be specific to each account, the primary research can be reused with other companies in the vertical.
4. Geography. There’s no reason that the structure and processes for ABM can’t work in multiple regions around the world. For example, companies in our research have piloted ABM with accounts in a particular region and then gathered up those practices and successes to fuel pilots in other regions.
5. Account subsets. Some ABM practitioners have engaged with accounts at a global level and then reused the research and analysis to approach different divisions within the global account. Divisional and regional accounts tend to have fewer product and service lines and less complexity. Smaller accounts also require fewer marketing resources to maintain the relationship.
6. Role. ABM views accounts as collections of individuals. But those individuals have common interests, concerns, and needs across multiple accounts. For example, CFOs face some of the same challenges no matter which company they work in or which vertical they serve.
7. Business need. The high level of customer intimacy that comes with ABM sometimes reveals a business need that can’t be filled by the marketplace (including you). Chances are, that need exists in other accounts, providing an opportunity to create a new offering.
8. People. Our research has shown that few companies have dedicated ABM resources. Most have a handful of full-timers at the management level, but at the field marketing level (where ABM implementation takes place) nearly everyone is on part-time duty. They can still do their day jobs, as long as the ABM program is well designed and governed.

Jeff Sands is a vice president and leads ITSMA’s ABM practice. He will be leading a series of ABM workshops this spring. Ajit Maira is a senior vice president at ITSMA.

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